1962, American English, possibly from Yiddish glitsh "a slip," from glitshn "to slip," from German glitschen, and related gleiten "to glide" (see glide). Perhaps directly from German; it began as technical jargon in the argot of electronic hardware engineers, popularized and given a broader meaning by U.S. space program.

glitch

noun

An operating defect; malfunction; a disabling minor problem: despite such ''glitches'' (a spaceman's word for irritating disturbances)/ Most had assured themselves that the trouble signal was only a ''glitch''(1962+ Aerospace)

A sudden interruption of electrical supply, program function, etc: The term ''bug'' to refer to a computer glitch(1980s+ Computer)

[fr German glitschen (or Yiddish glitshen), ''slip'']

The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D.Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.Cite This Source

glitch in Technology

/glich/ [German "glitschen" to slip, via Yiddish "glitshen", to slide or skid] 1. (Electronics) When the inputs of a circuit change, and the outputs change to some random value for some very brief time before they settle down to the correct value. If another circuit inspects the output at just the wrong time, reading the random value, the results can be very wrong and very hard to debug (a glitch is one of many causes of electronic heisenbugs). 2. A sudden interruption in electric service, sanity, continuity, or program function. Sometimes recoverable. An interruption in electric service is specifically called a "power glitch" (or power hit), of grave concern because it usually crashes all the computers. See also gritch. 2. [Stanford] To scroll a display screen, especially several lines at a time. WAITS terminals used to do this in order to avoid continuous scrolling, which is distracting to the eye. 4. Obsolete. Same as magic cookie. [Jargon File]